Workers ‘felt a bit powerless’ waiting for jobs news

IT had been coming since December, but when it arrived it was still a shock.

That’s how workers at Pfizer reacted yesterday to news the company intends to shed 545 jobs by 2009.

For Martin Condon, a father-of-three from Onslow Gardens, it was a sad day. He has worked at the pharmaceutical plant in Little Island since 1982. First with Pharmacia, then with Gaeleo and Pfizer who took it over in 2003.

He was off when Pfizer employees were briefed at Ringaskiddy, Loughbeg and Little Island, but was informed through a phone call from an operations manager. Later he talked to a number of his colleagues.

“We were awaiting our fate. There had been a lot of anxiety in recent weeks, especially among the workers’ spouses. In a way we felt a bit powerless. I was talking to my colleagues and they are a bit shocked. We knew something was coming, but we didn’t know the numbers.”

However, he said he was hopeful Pfizer would find a buyer for the Little Island and Loughbeg plants.

“We have a hi-tech site with a highly trained workforce. It [the Little Island plant] isn’t scheduled to close until the end of 2009, so that gives us a bit of breathing space to find a buyer. It also gives people more time to improve their skills even further with training,” Mr Condon said.

He said most of his colleagues were in their 20s and 30s. In the process area they are predominantly men, but there is a higher proportion of women working in the laboratories.

Many are recently married with young children. So while they will be naturally concerned about their futures they are, according to Mr Condon, “very well educated and very highly-skilled”.

In the worst-case scenario many of them will seek jobs elsewhere and some will no doubt be looking ahead to the possibility of work at Amgen when its biotechnology plant opens in Carrigtwohill in a few years’ time.

Billy Power, who has worked in the Loughbeg plant for 20 years, said his colleagues were “very sad and very down”. He said job cuts had been expected, “but not on that scale”.

SIPTU branch organiser Eddie Mullins said he was concerned so many jobs had been lost in Cork recently and believed Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin could be doing more to protect jobs.

“It will be a worst-case scenario if they are all out of jobs. Amgen and others are coming on stream and I think they could be subsumed into them. However, it shouldn’t be a problem selling on the plants [at Little Island and Loughbeg] as going concerns,” Mr Mullins said.

Cork Chamber of Commerce chief executive Conor Healy said he believed buyers could be sourced within the timeframe outlined as the facilities in question are of a high standard, meeting highest regulatory requirements, with highly skilled and committed management and staff and are located in one of the leading regions for the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.

“While Pfizer has been good for Cork, equally Cork has been, and will continue to be, good for Pfizer and that despite today’s announcement the company will be a significant contributor to the Cork region into the future,” Mr Healy said.